LA Center of Photography Flash Workshop 3/23/2014

Wow, I am terrible at posting photos of my own adventures in a timely manner! I went to one of the best workshops I have ever attended in March 2014, a workshop solely dedicated to learning how to use flash, and failed to share it on the blog. Flash, such a hard subject for any photographer to grasp, and luckily in the digital age we can take a photo, see its results, and adjust accordingly. Even with these technological advances I was still struggling with flash, it eluded me, and frustrated me, so I decided to do something about it. Flash Class was on Sunday 3/23/14 in Hollywood, I drove down from Las Vegas the night before and spent the night with my grams, got up really early Sunday to make the drive from Hesperia to Hollywood for this class, and boy was it worth the effort. Walking into the class I immediately felt out of place, seated were 15 or so class mates and in front of them piles and piles of ridiculously expensive top of the line photography equipment. My and my little mid-grade Canon felt like the Mini in race full of Mercedes and Beamers, we were a hell of a competitor and surely I am a hell of a driver, but the flash and features of my little camera were not comparable. I sat next to the other Canon shooters and immediately introduced myself to the women seated near me, sadly I cant remember their real names because I didn't blog sooner, but one of them was a older woman with a 5DMIII who loves travel photography (we will refer to her as Nancy) and another lady that has a food blog and a very snazzy Canon 5DMII herself (we will refer to her as Betsy). I am significantly younger and have far less life experiences under my belt than Nancy and Betsy so I did enjoy our discussion before the workshop started, and I found it astonishing that Nancy has never been paid for her photo work, and neither of the women have ever done a portrait session, wedding, etc... Betsy does have a food blog and that is amazing, but no real experience outside of that. So me with my puny little mid-grade Mini has more seat time that both these women with very very fancy expensive cameras, hello confidence booster! I'm now not so shy, or embarrassed of the Mini and my skill set!! Shortly after introducing myself to Nancy and Betsy Brian plopped in the seat next to me, and immediately I liked him. Brian is one of those people you can just look at and like, not because oh how he looks or what he wears, but simply the energy he exudes and the genuine smile he gives people. I knew the moment Brian sat down he would be my PIC (partner in crime) through this workshop and that we would be friends, and we were partners, and now friends.

The workshop starts, and my photo world is changed forever.  One of the highlights of this workshop was that I got to meet Julia Dean, she is amazing, really, you should look up her work. The other highlight was the information presented, we were taught a idea and then let out into the wild to test the idea. With Brian by my side we had a lot of fun, we learned inside lighting, fill flash, bounce flash, and how to implement flash into every possible way.  The photos below are certainly not my best work ever, but a sample of the ideas we were taught and we tested on our own. This course has thrown my work into another realm of awesomeness, and I have since shot one of the best wedding receptions of my career immediately following this course. This course has since changed my work, my creative flow, and has taken my level of skill to amazing heights, overall id say it was life changing.    

One little story I must mention, only because it dug deep into my soul and hurt my feelings 10 fold involves Nancy, Negative Nancy... This woman with all her fancy gear still shoots in auto mode, no real concept of how the camera or flash works, she was slow to change her settings, and was very needy as a workshop neighbor interrupting me, Brian, and Betsy constantly with questions about her own equipment. To be honest, Negative Nancy needed a more beginner course in photography to learn her equipment before taking such an advance course, regardless of this fact we all helped her maneuver through this challenging workshop. During the lecture, post her interrupting the 3 of us several times, Negative Nancy had the gall to tell me to "SHUSSH, keep quiet" during the lecture. Lets rewind this story a bit, during ANY class I have ever taken in the past 15 years, admittedly, I am very verbal, I nod when I understand a idea, I say yes when I'm excited that I understand the topic, and interact with the teacher, this is how I learn as annoying as it may be. Negative Nancy "shusshed" me, which was completely rude and hurt my feelings but I realized maybe I was being too loud and from that point forward I kept my mouth shut though I did continue nodding my head at the teacher (I cant keep all my learning awesomeness to myself!). After that section of the workshop we had a break where she came up to me and actually asked me "why do you do that in class? it was interrupting my learning. Where did you learn to do that? Who taught you it was ok to do that??" Really??? That's how I learn lady, and clearly it works because YOU ASK ME FOR HELP ALL CLASS!!!!!!! Just because you are older than I am doesn't mean you get to be rude to me, however, being raised as I was I am not impolite to older people so I kindly said "I don't know, I interact with the teacher and make noise and it helps me learn. I do apologize it was interrupting your train of thought and Ill keep it down" and I walked away. Now, I am not saying I was right to be making noise and interrupt her train of thought, regardless of the fact that it was completely unintentional and not malicious in any way, I immediately ceased my noise action, but for her to ask where I learned to do that, from who, and why do I do that was SO FLIPPING RUDE! The rest of the class I ignored all of her questions and during our workshop outings I avoided her like the black plague, even though she would come up to me and Brian and ask for assistance.  The moral of the story, just be kind. I feel good that I wasn't a rude a-hole to her, even though she deserved it, I kept true to how I was raised and I responded in a way that would have made my mother and grandmother proud. I also felt great knowing that my equipment is in now way a tell tale of the quality of work I produce or my skill set, sure, I have camera envy but that doesn't mean a damn thing.

Upcoming excursions

Husband and I like, no let me reword, we love love love to off-road. There is nothing better than the free spirited play on the beaten path, but more so off it. Our motor's thunderous call of sound is created by nothing less than the adjustment of your ankle bringing about the utmost childish behavior in myself and similarly my fellow off-roaders. We continue the childish behavior at every stop with whitty banter between fellow "team mates" because lets face it, its a race every where we go and we are on team Maverick!!! We trace the trails with swiftness and precision, race through the whoops at Ricky Bobby speeds, and when we look into the face of a rocky hillside instead of feeling limited and intimidated we move forward in 4wheel low and deface that rocky pile in our quest for the top. Is it this glorious? Absolutely.

At the end of the day we all meet up at camp having left clean and pretty and arriving as filth mongers dirt stained from tip to toe with a smile! The girls begin dinner, traditionally a buffet style meal serving the masses, and the boys light the camp fire, by light of course I mean with .25 gallon of race gas and a pile of wood that would make an Alaskan jealous. The night continues with music, stories, air guitar (not kidding), great food, and amazing company. For these reasons we love off-roading and our passion for it has been seared into our little oil filled hearts.

This weekend we will be enjoying this crazy addictive sport in Barstow for the High Desert Charities Poker Run sponsored by Slash X Cafe. Between races... er... of course I mean poker runs... I will be taking a slew of photos of members of this race! I'm looking forward to meeting as many of the charity contributing members of our sport I can, and fingers crossed they bring some off-road photo business! Being in the desert I hope to luck out and get some amazing sunset photos, purples and pinks are the best and most memorable sunsets. Photos to come, but in the meantime here is one of my favorite sunsets to tide you over.

Macro Mission! And my encounter with Germans...

These past few days I have been on a Macro Mission, thats what Im calling it at least. Macro is fantastic, even if you have a point and shoot LEARN IT! Macro is there to show us how amazing small things can be, texture, detail, and size is dramatically changed with this setting. Its a favorite of mine! I highly recommend you figure out how to turn your camera on to Macro focus setting and go take some up close shots! Yes, you must get very close to your subject. Do I recommend you shoot an anthill? Nope.  Yes, even your camera on your cell phone is HIGHLY likely to have a Macro setting. Dont be afraid, get in there and shoot.

My dear sweet husband and I went to Shoshone, CA this week. This particular trip was one of exceptional awesomeness, while visiting the local gas station for our monthly lottery ticket purchase I was interrupted... and not by just anyone but by a German with no shirt, a gigantic beer belly, and a thick as mud accent.
"So you win lottery, ya?" (imagine a really really thick German accent here)
I glanced up and there was not just one but three of them, all the same with the exception of the new two being fully clothed (for which I thanked my lucky stars, I only had 2 nipples staring me in the face not 6). I responded with
"Big winner, 3 bucks!"
He chuckles and his uncovered belly jiggles.
"So Ill marry you, big winner"
The word winner with a thick German accent sounded like wiener, which added to the hilarity of the sitch.
I laughed and said
"Too late, I have already snagged me a husband!"
I hurried to finish my lottery ticket purchase and exited the gas station as I was super uncomfortable with all the nipple staring happening inside the store. Outside, I wandered around the area taking random photos in Macro mode while my all-too-late husband just sat quietly and waited for me to finish shooting.

All of these photos post processing was simply cropping and changing to black and white. Personally I associate texture with black and white photos, you might not, and however you see something is how you should shoot it and post process it for print (or for most people to post it online).

This piece is actually some sort of farm equipment, not sure what it does but the gritty texture of the item and the harsh shadows of the afternoon made for very interesting photos. Note, for this photo I was using a F2.0 aperture to lose the focus of the back area of the photo, which was completely unappealing.

Texture is amazing in Macro, would you have passed this tree trunk by without looking twice? The focus point was placed on the hole in the middle of the trunk and a wide open aperture of F/2.0 was used to blow out the focus in the background. Note, if you chose a focus point on an item that is physically closer to the camera  more of the background would be out of focus and fuzzy.

Mid-shoot I was again interrupted by the nipple staring shirtless man...  and again, husband had disappeared. Where was my knight in shining armor? Nowhere!!
"Hey, you want my picture?"
I tried to not laugh at the question, but when I looked up I couldn't help myself. Imagine this... three Germans, one teeny Minnie-Winny camper, and my favorite nipple staring shirtless man doing leg lunges in the parking lot while asking me if I wanted to take his photo. GLORY! This definitely tops my trip off with hilarity!! And if you are wondering, no I didn't take his photo, the memory of him will last I'm my thoughts indefinitely. Back to the photos!

Again, texture! This is actually the underside of a palm tree that needs to be shaved down badly, however, the texture is amazing. When you shoot macro get in close, you will be amazed at what you find!!

An old and rusty park bench with harsh sunlight made for a very interesting photo. I did not shoot this in Macro, but it was taken on our Shoshone adventure and I think its amazing so I added it.

Once I got all these photos shot, and I was fully satisfied I had explored the area my all-too-late husband and I headed back home.

This guy is Bob, hes one of our many very sweet Jack Russel Terriers. He had anxiety with the camera near, though he persevered and I was able to snap this shot of my Bobba. I turned on the Macro focus setting and moved the focus point to the lower part of his snout, then I continued to shoot his pretty face til he couldn't stand still anymore. My entire post processing for this photo was to crop out the sides and turn it into black and white, that's all. The detail in his fur on his nose and whiskers is so dang cute, and the gloss and sheen to his out of focus eyes plays to my heart. Hes a sensitive, sweet, and curious boy and this photo portrays that.

Go on now!! Get out there and take photos! Something most photographers wont tell you they take lots of photos too and some of them don't turn out as expected either. Don't get down on yourself for taking 20 photos to get 1 great shot, that just means you had 19 opportunities for improvement so use those opportunities and improve! Now, these odds are terrible for wedding photographers and I don't suggest you go out and shoot weddings without the correct experience, however, for a beginner-amateur this is acceptable! Just get out there and shoot, that's the only thing that will make you better.

Lastly, when you see something beautiful no matter the size stop and take a few photos. Beauty can live anywhere.